The letter from Spotswood to Col. Harrison, Deputy Auditor of H. M. Revenue, and dated 28 March 1724 had something to say about the Second Germanna Colony:
"About the same time (the reference seems to be when Richard Blackmore asked Spotswood to search for iron ore which agrees quite well as the date was given as February 1717 which would be 1718 by the modern calendar) I fell into another partnership of land (etc.). Mr. Robert Beverly having discovered some excellent land among ye little mountains, and made a survey there of before the Proclamation issued in 1710, concerning the granting of land, but not daring to seat land so remote from all Christian inhabitants, and exposed to Indians, found it in vain to take out a patent for the same under the new terms of cultivation, until an oppertunity hapned of freeing a considerable number of German families imported in 1717, when he invited me to become a sharer in the land, and at the same time admitted in some other partners, to the end we might all joyn our abilities to made a strong settlement with a body of people at once. accordingly I came into the proposal, as judging it no ways unbecoming to me, in the station of Governor, to contribute towards the seating H.M. lands, and paying down the passage- money for 70 odd Germans, we settled them upon our tract as freemen (not servants)in 20 odd tenements, all close joyning to one another for their better defense, providing them there with a stock of cattle and all other things necessary for their support, without receiving (even to this day) one penny or penny's worth of rent from them. The tract then consisted of about 13,000 acres, but afterwards understanding that many others of the Germans, who had been sold for servants in this Colony, designed when the time of their servitude was expired, to come and joyn their country-folks, we thought it needful to inlarge the tract; and I finding, by the care which the Lord Commissioners of Trade to send over the methods for making hemp and tar, that the Ministry at home was for the encouraging the Plantations to raise Naval Stores, judged it convenient to take in a large quantity of piney lands, which lay contiguous and fit for tar and masts; and so it was increased to a tract of 40,000 acres."
So Spotswood confirms the arrival of the Second Colony, its approximate size and the purposes to which he and his partners hoped to put the group. Other documents confirm that the group was to be involved in "naval stores" and was not to be involved in iron mining or smelting. This is understandable as there was no iron mine or iron furnace at this time. So the project involving them had to be for another purpose.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.